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Modernista is banking on its campaign for Palm to help it rebound from the bankruptcy of client General Motors.

Lisa van der Pool

A thousand orange-clad martial arts dancers snap through precision maneuvers on a vast Chinese plain. A young woman in a flowing off-white dress glides in among the swirling dancers and perches herself atop a mound at their center. Techno music fades in and out.

The TV spot is for a new mobile phone. And it’s pure Modernista.

The piece represents not just a chance for the Boston agency that created the ad to rebound from a major client’s bankruptcy. The exotic advertisement also is part of a huge campaign by Palm Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM), the company that laid the foundation for smartphones such as the iPhone, to return to prominence.

“This launch is huge for Palm,” said Colleen Bullington, the senior advertising manager at the Sunnyvale, Calif., operation. “This is nothing short of relaunching the company and from a marketing standpoint we’re relaunching the brand.”

“Palm has fallen off the map a little bit,” she added. “There’s a lot of fresh enthusiasm and excitement at the company now. ... There’s almost a startup mentality here. The whole company is singularly focused on this effort.”

Palm would not disclose billings for the spot, titled “Flow,” but trade publications put the total for the campaign at about $30 million in billings.

The dancers, who rehearsed for several weeks to prepare for the shoot, are meant to convey the ease and intuitiveness of the Palm Pre’s technology, agency executives said.

For Modernista, which nabbed the plumb Palm assignment last December, the Pre’s launch has been good news both in terms of the cash coming into the shop and the high-profile nature of the campaign.

The timing of the win is “pretty important, frankly. Obviously the revenue for Hummer isn’t what it was in 2005 and 2006. (Palm) is filling that gap, which is great,” said Lance Jensen, Modernista co-founder and executive creative director. “It’s not like we’re closing our doors or anything, but want to grow like everybody does. This is a good one.”

For the past year Modernista has been operating under a shadow cast by its largest client GM. Since 2006, Modernista has handled creative for its Hummer and Cadillac brands. Combined, the accounts were once worth a reported $850 million in billings. Today, they are worth a fraction of that.

Modernista’s employee ranks have thinned to 95 employees, from a high of 157 staffers in 2008.

Smartphones represent “a good category for us to be in,” Jensen said. “It gets us into the most important consumer technology available today.”

If Modernista’s short-term success is tethered to the success of the Palm Pre, early sales are positive.

Palm has already sold around 300,000 units of the Pre (double what analysts predicted) and is producing around 15,000 units per day, Edward Snyder, a mobile phone analyst for Charter Equity Research, wrote in a report cited by the New York Times. Palm does not disclose sales data.

The Palm Pre retails for $199 and went on sale in early June. Sprint Nextel is the exclusive U.S. carrier. Palm’s stock price has risen steadily in recent weeks and is currently trading at just under $16 per share.

“For Modernista, getting an assignment like this will put them back on the map and show that they’re alive and well and that they’re able to work in a space that is current,” said Judy Neer, president of advertising search consultancy Pile and Co. Inc. in Boston. “It is the kind of (assignment) that every agency would like to get when they have been in a situation where one of their clients has gone into bankruptcy.”

Modernista’s last big commercial shoot was about two years ago for Cadillac and included TV spots featuring celebrities, including “Grey’s Anatomy” actress Kate Walsh. The agency also handles advertising for Hearts on Fire diamonds and TIAA-Cref, among others.

Inspiration for “Flow” came from the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, Jensen said.

“We just wanted to set a different mood for Palm and try to come up with stuff that will break through. It’s what we always do — try to get noticed.”

The entire campaign is composed of several TV spots and online components. Commercials will air on both network and cable TV stations.

“About four months ago, people would say Blackberry and iPhone. Now they’re saying Blackberry, Palm and iPhone,” Jensen said. “We’re always going to be in competition with the

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